


To find the sky

by Gabbeeh



Series: The WinterIron FemTony Wingfic AU [3]
Category: Iron Man (Movies), The Avengers (Marvel Movies)
Genre: Alternate Universe - Wings, Arc Reactor Issues, F/M, Female Tony Stark, Kidnapping, Wingfic
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2018-05-17
Updated: 2018-05-17
Packaged: 2019-05-08 08:58:14
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,317
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/14690754
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Gabbeeh/pseuds/Gabbeeh
Summary: Toni and Bucky get kidnapped.





	To find the sky

**Author's Note:**

> I was supposed to write something here, but now I don't remember what. So. I own nothing. Enjoy!
> 
> Oh, right. Title is from Harry Chapin's song Taxi. First part of the series got it's title from Chapin's song Sequel. Chapin was a genius with lyrics. Nuff said.

Toni woke up in a cliché. The cell was dark and damp, with a cold stone floor and uneven stone walls and an uncomfortable cot under a tiny window with bars. It was ridiculous.

 

As she sat up on the uncomfortable cot, shaking out a cramp in her left wing, she finally noticed her cellmate. She scrunched up her nose and swore internally, because it was bad enough to get kidnapped herself - she wanted Bucky to be anywhere but here, in danger, imprisoned. She wanted him to be safe at home, not lying on the floor next to her cot, hopefully sleeping and not passed out.

 

Just as she thought that, he woke up with a groan.

 

”Did we get drugged?” he murmured.

 

”Probably. But that means these guys knew to take the serum into account when calculating the amount of drugs. I woke up like two minutes before you, so there’s no way we got the same drugs.”

 

”It also means that this was well planned. They didn’t just happen to have the right drugs on them.”

 

She gave a short nod.

 

”So who do we know that’s smart and cliché?”

 

Bucky did a double take. ”You’re not thinking Doom, are you?”

 

”Maybe. But then we’re probably not in the states anymore, which would be all sorts of bad.”

 

Bucky nodded and stretched out his wings, making himself comfortable.

 

”Guess we’ll have to wait and see.”

 

* * *

 

And wait they did.

 

When the door finally opened, hours later, it wasn’t by some super villain who wanted to gloat. It was clearly a guard, who shoved in a tray containing two metal cups with water and a dry piece of bread.

 

After a few more hours of waiting, Toni spending at least two of them asleep against Bucky’s shoulder, the door opened again. This time it was five guards, two of them with guns aimed their way and one holding a video camera. The other two punched Bucky a couple of times, before turning and giving Toni a black eye of her own. Then the guards left, presumably to send that video to SHIELD or the Avengers, demanding ransom or whatever the hell their motive was. Toni put the chilly metal cup against her eye with a huff and a pout, muttering about idiots who kidnapped a genius inventor just for ransom, when they could have tried to make her build something.

 

Bucky just wrapped her up in his arms and wings, because cuddling always seemed to soothe him when he was worried or stressed.

 

* * *

 

 

Toni’s internal clock told her that it’d been seven hours since she woke up on that cot, when suddenly something happened. The sound of explosions could be heard in the distance, rapidly getting closer. Five minutes later, a scratching sound was heard from the lock before the door swung open to reveal one deadly redhead.

 

”Good to see you, Nat”, said Bucky with a grin.

 

They followed Natasha through a labyrint of corridors, meeting up with the rest of the team, minus Bruce, near the exit.

 

”We had to leave the quinjet at a safe distance, so we have a bit of a flight left”, Steve mentioned offhandedly as they swung open the front door.

 

Toni froze.

 

”How far?”

 

Steve shrugged. ”It’s just a couple of miles, maybe less.”

 

Toni still didn’t move.

 

”How far?” she asked again, voice sharp.

 

Bucky stepped in front of her, cupping her face in his palms.

 

”Tuck your wings in”, he murmured.

 

”James…”

 

”I can do it. Arms around my neck, legs around my waist and tuck your wings in. I’ve got you. All you have to do is hold on and trust me.”

 

Toni stared imploringly into his eyes for another moment before nodding and wrapping her arms around him, clinging to him like a baby koala. Bucky put his arms around her waist securely and spread his wings.

 

”Buck, what…?”

 

”I’ll explain later.”

 

They took off for the sky.

 

* * *

 

Bucky landed a bit clumsily, unused to the extra weight, before carefully setting down his precious cargo. Toni stumbled a bit, refusing to let him go completely. He suspected that she was dreading the coming confrontation, but also that she had used up a _lot_ of energy during this ordeal, especially considering she’d missed a couple of meals and hadn’t been able to take her meds. So he waved off their worried teammates, assuring them that she wasn’t injured and led her into the plane.

 

”Spoons, doll?” he murmured into her hair, but Steve’s super soldier hearing must have picked it up because he looked at him questioningly.

 

”Spoons? What are you..?”

 

Toni just shook her head into his shoulder and Bucky instinctively wrapped his wings closer around her.

 

”No, you’re completely out of spoons, or no you don’t have the energy to count them?”

 

”Second option, maybe, I don’t know”, she murmured into his jacket.

 

”So that would be one, maybe? Less?”

 

She hummed noncommittally, her warm breath ghosting along his neck. Bucky looked up from their cocoon of feathers and warmth, at the teammates he had previously ignored.

 

”Do we have any protein shakes or something onboard? She’s not gonna eat anything solid right now, but we didn’t really get fed properly in that place.”

 

Clint rummaged around for a moment before triumphantly waving a protein shake in front of him. Bucky got Toni to drink half of it before she promptly fell asleep on him. He draped his wing over her like a blanket before looking at his annoyed, worried, impatient team and sighing.

 

”So we need to talk about Toni.”

 

* * *

 

”It’s the arc reactor, right?” Bruce asked quietly as the team got settled around the sleeping woman, the quinjet flying on autopilot. ”It affects her more than we’ve known.”

 

Bucky nodded.

 

”It’s the arc reactor. It goes really deep into her chest, splitting her sternum in two. She doesn’t have all her flight muscles left. Her heart and lungs are damaged. On a good day she can fly 1.3 miles unassisted.”

 

”Fuck”, murmured Clint, the others echoing his sentiment. ”She can’t fly.”

 

”She can”, Bucky disagreed. ”Just not very far.”

 

He stroked his fingers through her soft locks, then her equally soft feathers.

 

”She gets tired easily, too. Lately, we’ve been using the spoon theory to measure her energy levels.”

 

Steve wrinkled his forehead confusedly, but Bruce cut in before he could ask.

 

”The spoon theory is a visual representation of the limited energy resources of people with chronic illness. You and me have an unlimited amount of spoons everyday, but some people, in this case Toni, only have a certain amount. This means a lot of planning and prioritizing, so that she has enough spoons to get through each day.”

 

”Chronic illness?” Clint’s voice was a bit too loud, but Toni slept too deeply to be disturbed.

 

”I think heart damage belongs in that category”, muttered Bucky.

 

Bruce nodded sadly.

 

”It does.”

 

”How come none of you felt this was important enough to share with the rest of the team?” Steve asked, a a slight sharpness to his tone.

 

”I know it’s important, Steve, but Toni’s been real worried about how you’d react. She’s afraid you’ll pity her or bench her from the Avengers.”

 

”Oh.” Steve looked slightly taken aback at that. ”Well, she’s never let us down in the field, so I can’t see any reason to bench her. And I remember how it feels to not have enough spoons - even if we didn’t have a name for it back then. She won’t get pity from me.”

 

”Toni’s our teammate and we love her. Nuff said”, Clint declared.

 

Bucky gave his teammates a lopsided smile.

 

”You might have to repeat that when she’s awake to hear it.”

 

Toni was still fast asleep as they landed in New York, after flying across parts of Europe and the Atlantic. Fucking Doom.

**Author's Note:**

> Thanks for reading and have a great day!


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